Central regions | Transport, logistics | Technology & innovation

GLONASS to help drivers navigate Russian provinces

10 Dec '12

The GLONASS Partnership – short for Assistance in the Development and Use of Navigation Technologies, a Russian industry association set up this past May to promote the national market in navigation services – is taking GLONASS, Russia’s answer to GPS, out to major highways in 33 Russian regions that host sections of international transport corridors, East West Digital News, the international resource on Russian digital industries, reported earlier today.

Between January 2013 and early 2015 the GLONASS Partnership, the federal government and local authorities in the regions of operation will each have to pony up just over 30% of the project’s 3 billion ruble ($94 million) price tag.

Each region will have its own navigation and data control center to keep track of public transport, ambulances, public utilities vehicles and hazardous freight carriers, capitalizing on a growing national market for road navigation devices that is projected to expand by 2015 by a factor of ten, at a minimum. According to Alexander Gurko, the president of the GLONASS Partnership, regions will be able to customize their centers by adding other important services.

Since 2008, federal legislation has required all Russian passenger carriers, haulers and shippers to use GLONASS or GLONASS+GPS positioning capabilities. By 2018, GLONASS will also be mandated for Russian civil aviation.

With Russia expecting its navigation service market to hit $590 million in 2012, a 346.6 billion ruble($11.5 billion) federal program has been adopted to develop GLONASS over the next eight years.